More Florida Bay

We took several days to cover the miles between the keys and the peninsula of Florida.  We waited out weather and explored the places we could reach.  We know our time is limited on this cruise as we will need to go home eventually but we didn't want to miss much either.  Our first stop was Lignumvitae State Park which was closed to tourists the day we were there but enjoyed the quiet and protected mooring balls.  They would only be protected until the wind changed so we knew we couldn't stay there too long.  We still had a lot of skinny water ahead and needed to take the shallow spots slowly.  Run aground at high speed and it takes a lot more to unstick you!  From our first night, we went to Tarpon Bay behind Key Largo.  It is a protected area from all wind angles.  The holding is not ideal, a lot of grass but it sure beat being exposed to high winds and waves.  We did have to reanchor once when the wind shifted and our anchor started dragging along a grassy bed right into a big, expensive looking boat.  Happily we were on board, having returned only a half-hour earlier from shore, and managed to retrieve the anchor and move to a better spot for the conditions.  It was a quiet night after that and left us both a bit leery of going ashore in windy conditions.  We rarely drag and it is a terrifying thought to have a boat missing when you return from an outing.  That day was definitely an "All's well that ends well." kind of day.

Our first night in Tarpon Basin we went to shore.  This part of Key Largo, a very very
long island, is cruiser friendly with a dinghy dock to help get us ashore.  I'm sure the
hope is that we'll spend money while we visit.  We always try to oblige!

The very nice center in front of the park.  It is also a cultural center with a
wide variety of programs.  We would have liked to visit it more but the
weather made it too rough to go ashore often.

We walked along many of the residential streets to see how the folks here live.
No McMansions, just regular folks in regular houses.  We would fit in.

Highway 1 is a whopping 4 lanes here making it a challenge to get across
but we managed not to become splats on the roadbed.

We tried our luck at happy hour here.  Ok but we've been to better.
We probably matched the Hobo theme with how we look!

The trees are so varied and mostly old.  These roots are reaching downward.

The best place we visited on this leg of the journey was John Pennekamp State Park.
We have read about this place and wanted to visit for years and this was the time. This was the
walkway leading to the main gate from Highway 1.  The wind was too high for any boats
to go out so no glass bottom boat, dive or kayaking for us this time. We
hope to be back someday and do a proper visit.

All the kayaks lined up waiting to be rented but not today.

The park protects one of the best coral reefs in Florida that stretches for
miles along the Atlantic coast of Florida.  It is the northern most reef,
I think, in the world.  One thing we did in the park was to watch a
film on the reef development including, fish, corals and conservation efforts.
This is a picture of the mooring field in the park.  You can see how rough the water is with
25 kt winds blowing.

The park paths and roads are scenic and well maintained.  The winds really
picked up while we were there and David thought it was best that we get back to
the boat.  Boy, was he right.  We made it back just in time to save the boat.  Our guardian
angels were working hard that day.